Psa: Johnny - Call Me Karizma

I’m not here to excuse or condone any violence but just to shed a light on

society’s passive role in creating a mind inside a kid to do such horrific

things to their peers.

Now, this is not a letter about a racist,

radicalized adult walking into a school and killing children, or shooting up a

church, or a Denny’s.

There is no fucking excuse for that.

There is no helping

someone who wants to hurt innocent people and they should never be forgiven.

I’m writing this because today on the news I saw that a twelve-year-old boy

walked into a class and shot at his fellow students.

No one was killed but I

turned off the TV and really asked myself: at twelve what was I doing?

Was that wrestling practice?

Was I playing on my Gameboy?

Maybe working up

enough courage to talk to a girl in gym class?

One thing that never crossed my

mind was hurting myself or others.

That doesn’t mean that other kids don’t go

through these things and have these feelings.

I think we need to take a step

back and wonder what is really driving a boy who should be at band practice to

want to die and take innocent classmates with him

I was advised not to speak in my song «Johnny"on this matter. I told my

management team I was gonna write it anyway.

And I want to say a few things

Johnny is a twelve-year-old boy, some of that you may know but have no idea

what is going on in his head

Johnny could be a girl who comes home with cuts in her arms but her parents

tell her it’s a phase and she’s gonna grow out of it

Johnny could be your son that starts posting weapons on social media but you

just say «boys will be boys»

Johnny could be your friend who gets called a slut and tell you she wants to

die every day but you ignore the signs

I’ll say it again there’s no apologizing for a school shooter but no boy hardly

yet through puberty who would ever do what Johnny did without being mentally

ill and drastically affected in a negative way by our society

I was told that writing a song that speaks more from the shooter’s perspective

could be taken the wrong way and that is why I wouldn’t change a fucking word

to this song.

As a society in America, we have to understand that our job is to

put our youth first and not to measure mental health on a crazy scale.

Everything shouldn’t be easy listening and viewing.

Sometimes we need to know

what could happen if we don’t do something.

I am no saint and I’m just as

guilty as the next when it comes to turning a blind eye to this epidemic.

We need to learn to talk with our kids and realize that regardless of what

politicians put into law we can make a difference without them.

A difference

that can change the impact of one or one thousand lives, maybe more.

Something as simple as «How's your mental health today?"or «I saw your tweet,

are you doing okay?

Let’s talk about it»

This song was meant to cause a stir, it was meant to upset people,

it was really meant to pressure on us as a society to combat mental health

starting from preschool onward.

I didn’t have someone in my school to talk

about my feelings and I was afraid to talk to my friends about it.

I want that to end.

I want there to be unlimited resources available in every

public school for kids to let it all out and to know it’s okay to be sad but it

isn’t okay to give up.

Most importantly I wrote this song without a happy

ending because there is no happy ending without us making a change.

Before any law is put in place or before any therapist is put into our schools

a shooting will happen again

I end this letter by saying this.

I’m no politician, I’m not a lawmaker,

or a judge, or a person of authority.

I’m no longer a student, I’m not a

teacher nor a parent.

I’m a human being and I wrote this letter to hopefully

bring us together to civilly and quickly put our kids first and make illness a

priority.

I will make no apologies for this song.

If it pisses off a million

people but helps one kid know that their mental health is fucking important and

their society is here to support them through it all then it’s worth every bit

of hate.

I’m gonna do my best from here on out to listen

Your friend, Riz